Washington, September 14: With the likely release of Moderna Inc's vaccine pushed to early next year, another leading candidate has raised hopes for Americans to be vaccinated at the earliest. Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, which has partnered with German drugmaker BioNTech, is confident of rolling out its vaccine by 2020-end if granted regulatory approval by October. COVID-19 Vaccine For Everyone Not Possible Before 2024, Says Serum Institute of India Chief Adar Poonawalla.

The Pfizer candidate is currently undergoing clinical trials, with the company raising the number of participants for the third phase tests from 30,000 to 44,000. With the massive volunteer size, the results of Pfizer trials is expected to be highly credible.

All eyes are on the Food and Drug Administrator (FDA), which is expected to take the final decision on Pfizer vaccine by October-end. If the developers receive the nod, the production would subsequently begin and the commercial roll-out is expected by December.

If the FDA approves the vaccine, the company is prepared to distribute "hundreds of thousands of doses," said Pfizer chief executive officer Albert Bourla, while speaking to the NBC news channel.

Bourla further pointed that Pfizer has already pumped in $1.5 billion for the vaccine development, and if the candidate gets rejected in the late-stage trials, if would be a "painful financial loss". The drugmaker, however, would not break due to the loss and continue its regular operations, he clarified.

The Pfizer's CEO claim to begin vaccination for Americans by 2020-end - subject to regulatory approval - comes at a time when the leader of world's largest vaccine manufacturer, Serum Institute of India (SII), said vaccinating all individuals on the planet is not possible before 2024.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Sep 14, 2020 09:51 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).